Luigi Ballerini

Cephalonia Luigi Ballerini

Poetry. Fiction. Translated from the Italian by Evgenia Matt. CEPHALONIA 1943-2001 is a narrative poem in the form of a dialogue or rather, a two- voiced monologue: a fragmented epic, contextualizing the massacre of Italian soldiers perpetrated by German troops in the days following the armistice, signed between Italy and the Allied Forces on September 8, 1943. The voices belong to Ettore B, an Italian soldier fallen in combat, but possibly executed, and Hans D, a German businessman born with a silver spoon in his mouth, that is a man who always lands on his feet, before, during and above all after the war.